The Lehigh County district attorney's office spent $6,579 in travel and hotel expenses for witnesses who testified in the eight-day trial of Kenneth Williams, who was convicted last month of first-degree murder and sentenced to die in the electric chair.

The trial didn't break the office's budget, according to District Attorney William Platt, who said he had an idea of what the costs would be after an extensive investigation by state troopers to various parts of the country culminated in Williams' arrest in Kentucky.

"That case is a little more expensive" than usual, Platt said, adding that hiring expert witnesses in other cases can run up the office's tab.

"It evens out," he said.

Williams, 36, formerly of Bucks County and Florida, has been in Lehigh County Prison since April 27, 1984, for the shooting of 22-year-old Edward Miller.

Miller's body was found on Oct. 25, 1983, in his trailer parked in the Trexler Truck Plaza on Old Route 22 in Kuhnsville.

In Williams' trial, First Assistant District Attorney James Martin called 36 witnesses for the prosecution, including state troopers, truck drivers and witnesses familiar with the trucking industry from New Jersey, West Virginia, Ohio, Rhode Island, Illinois, Kentucky, Texas, York and Mary D, between Tamaqua and Pottsville.

Investigators traced the route Williams took when he hitchhiked from Florida to central Pennsylvania where Williams said he met Miller.

Williams' travels took him to at least nine states, according to testimony.

A letter sent to Thomas Lazorik, county fiscal officer, shows bills for housing witnesses at the Hamilton Plaza Hotel near the courthouse in Allentown cost $1,681.

Some of the prosecution witnesses were members of Miller's family, who came to Allentown from Dundee, Ohio.

The total cost for airline tickets for 11 witnesses was $4,868. A check for that amount was delivered to Advance Travel Bureau, Inc., of Allentown which coordinated the transportation for the witnesses.

The only bus traveler, Dennis Knowles, a York trucker, submitted a $30.40 bill for a round-trip ticket on Trailways from York to Allentown.

Williams' court-appointed attorney, Charles Sieger Jr., was paid $3,500 for representing Williams after Chief Public Defender Frederick Charles was allowed to withdraw from the case.

Charles contended that he could not "zealously" defend Williams because of critical comments Williams made to the media about Charles' handling of the case.

In his petition asking for payment, Sieger said he spent 249 1/2 hours on the case.

Court-appointed lawyers are paid $35 an hour, which would have amounted to more than $8,700 for Sieger, but he received $3,500, which was the cap set by the court for representation in a homicide trial through a verdict.

An order signed by trial Judge James N. Diefenderfer on Oct. 5 said Sieger was given $71 for costs of photocopying documents, parking and buying a trucker's log book.

The log book Sieger bought was used as evidence by the defense when he argued that the one Williams had may not have been Miller's because it looked similar to log books any trucker might use.

Diefenderfer signed an order last month to give $75 to Verba Miller, Miller's sister, for travel expenses and witness compensation. She was called to testify for the defense.

Sieger has filed a request for a new trial for Williams, who has not been formally sentenced by a judge.

The case automatically will be reviewed by the state Supreme Court because of the death penalty imposed by the jury.

Sieger contended that there was insufficient evidence for the verdict and that the court erred in not suppressing confessions Williams made to state troopers after his arrest.

He also said, "The court committed error since it allowed mass occupation of the courtroom by members of the victim's family, friends of the victim's family and persons of unknown origin dressed in clothes of a Mennonite sect, which created sympathy on the part of the victim."

Few of the 50 seats in the spectators' section of Diefenderfer's courtroom were unoccupied during the trial.

Most of the seats were taken by Miller's family and friends who came from Ohio and Lancaster County.